Rockhopper Imaging and Image Media Solutions (Andy Gross and Amy Ciambriello)
To the best of my recollection, the following is a record of events that transpired culminating in the termination of my employment from Rockhopper Imaging Inc.:
In mid-January, 2003, Andy Gross (the owner and President of ImageMedia Solutions) called a meeting and informed all of his employees that he was no longer able to afford to keep his company running. He informed his employees that their termination was effective immediately and advised them to seek unemployment compensation after leaving the offices. Any vacation and personal hours that his employees had accrued would not be paid. This was also not the first time that Andy had gone through massive layoffs. It was either the third or fourth time that he?d let a large part of his staff go, but this time it seemed that he was really pulling the plug on his company.
Prior to the meeting, I was pulled aside by my immediate supervisor at the time, Amy Ciambriello. She was considered to be Andy?s next in charge with running the production and management of ImageMedia. She informed me of what was going to take place at the meeting and also told me that she had a plan of action that she wished to discuss with Andy. Her idea was to present Andy with a situation that would allow a few key employees stay on and continue the work under a different company name.
We had a meeting that Saturday with Andy and four other employees including Amy, myself, Moises Rubiera and Robin McRae. The idea was that we would begin our own company to continue doing the electronic publishing branch of Andy?s business while giving him a percentage of the profits. He seemed to welcome the idea but said that it would be dependent on what his investors, Charles Jones, felt.
While we were waiting for an answer from Charles Jones, Andy sold some of his business to a company known as American Micrographics. A handful of his former employees also went to work there including Moises Rubiera, who declined to join Amy, Robin and me in our business endeavor. A few of the other employees remained at Image Media to continue finishing up whatever business we still had so Andy would not be in violation of any contractual agreements he had with his clients.
Andy received the approval from Charles Jones to subcontract his clients? work to his former employees? new company for a percentage of the invoices. After the approval, Amy incorporated Rockhopper Imaging through an online incorporation service as well as obtaining legal counsel to bring us up to speed with our legal obligations and also draw up a shareholders agreement. She paid for these services with her own money which was later reimbursed to her by Rockhopper Imaging.
Andy drew up a preliminary agreement which detailed how the two companies were to conduct business with each other. I brought up my concerns regarding the agreement with Amy stating that it sounded like we were being taken advantage of. Her response to me was not to worry about it too much and that it would work itself out in the end.
I applied for and received unemployment benefits from the state of New Jersey. During that time, I continued to do work for Rockhopper Imaging without payment or benefits. Over the course of a few months, my money was running out and I was becoming depressed and angry. My vehicle payments were for 372.66 monthly. I had also incurred credit card debt during 2002. At the time I was receiving approximately 300 dollars a week take-home from unemployment. I felt that I was hanging on by a thread. During late March or early April, I took a leave of absence for three to four days. Amy called me to discuss my concerns and assured me that it was only a matter of a week or so before we would establish a payroll and begin earning our yearly salary of 40k dollars per year.
I returned to work with a renewed sense of hope. Things seemed to be going well, but there were still issues that I felt needed to be resolved. Amy felt that we could use an extra helping hand around the office and Andy needed assistance getting one of his projects completed. They both agreed upon bringing back two former employees, both of who I objected to. The pair were brother and sister, illegal immigrants from Costa Rica. I felt that during their time at ImageMedia, their work was sub-par. I felt that they put little effort into completing projects correctly and too much effort into finding ways to goof off.
Amy disagreed with me and hired Priscilla anyway. Andy hired her brother Ken. My concern was putting the company at risk by hiring a known illegal immigrant. Amy assured me that by not putting Priscilla on the payroll and instead paying her as contract labor with company checks, we would not be at risk.
One Saturday, I had gone into work to try to get on top of things. I found Ken there at Amy?s computer talking on the phone to his girlfriend, browsing the internet and burning copies of software and/or music. I brought this issue up with Amy who assured me that the issue would be addressed. Also during the time of Priscilla?s initial employment (she left work for a few months to have a baby) with Rockhopper, I found that she was doing work that I had requested to Amy that she not do. Part of the responsibilities of creating electronic TOCs for our clients is to proofread the bookmarks that we create to ensure that there are no spelling or punctuation errors. On more than one occasion I found that she was not completing that duty. One project I brought to Amy?s attention contained at least eight spelling and punctuation errors. Her response was to tell Priscilla to be more careful about proofreading. On one occasion I found Priscilla proofreading bookmarks with her father. Her father, Louis, was reading a paper copy while Priscilla was going over the electronic copy. Louis? spoken English is barely passable while Priscilla?s written English is just as bad. These events led me to have to go over numerous projects with a fine tooth comb.
While checking one project, I found that a bookmark had been linked incorrectly and part of the project had to be redone. I began fixing it not realizing that Amy was in the process of finalizing it to post online for the client to review. She came in and asked that I stop screwing around with the project because she had to get it done. I had to explain to her the error that I found and pointed out that the quality of the product didn?t seem to be getting any better. She went out and had a talk with the other employees about checking their work. I wondered how many more times we would have to bring it up before it actually began to sink in.
While we were busy trying to establish our own company, Andy decided that he was going to continue running his business and try to bring in new clients. He had hired back a few old employees and at one point had more people working for him than we had for us. That bothered me a little bit considering that we had to hide our company from his clients and pay 80 percent of all of the operating costs. We were using less than 50% of the office space and I was trying to build our own supply of computers and printers, yet we were still paying the 80% which included the lease, the phone and internet connection, and repairs on Andy?s equipment. At one point, the Kodak DS 3500 scanner that we were leasing from Andy encountered a feed problem which resulted in the warping of the images when they appeared on the computer screen. Andy told Amy that it was up to us to pay for the service of the scanner, which she did. She also purchased a $2,000 service contract for the scanner. I did not feel that it was right that we were paying 80% of Andy?s operating costs including the maintenance of his equipment which we were leasing from him.
Andy?s other clients? work was taking up an obscene amount of drive space on his three servers. This prompted me to contact Moises Rubiera about building a server for Rockhopper Imaging. He agreed to do it for a small fee and the cost of the equipment, which Amy agreed to. After we?d gotten the server and three production machines for Robin, Amy and me, Andy came in and questioned why I was buying all new computers. I told him I thought it would be nice if our company had it?s own faster machines. He then told me that I should think about using that money to upgrade the computers we were leasing from him instead of buying new stuff. This only served to reinforce my belief that Andy was trying to keep our company on a very short leash and my belief that he was trying to use our assets to grow his own company.
Andy had hired a former employee named Flavio Hickel to continue to do Image Media work. During the beginning of the company he could be counted on to be a little hyperactive, but not a problem. As the two companies began to reach ?stability? with their arrangements, Flavio began to grow complacent and belligerent. His conversational volume consisted of shouting his points to people as discussions grew more passionate. On one occasion, the subject of ?tossing salads? came up. Priscilla, not being too keen on English slang, asked Flavio what he meant. He shouted to her ?A tossed salad is when a guy licks another guys ass!!!!? I was in the next room and I could hear this going on. Another time, he kept goading Priscilla by saying she was too sweet, too nice, never said any bad words etc?She responded to him by shouting ?Pucking cocksucker!!?. Amy then proceeded to yell at Flavio for Priscilla?s offence and at one point, he told Amy to go fuck herself.
On top of the language and discipline problems, Flavio is a communist or socialist of some sort. So on top of having to be exposed to the constant stream of cursing, we were all exposed to constant political propaganda including newspaper cartoons cut out and hung on the wall with his commentary written in along the borders as well as an almost constant stream of political commentary on his part whenever an issue arose in the news. I recall one occasion where the spelling of Brazil came up. I believe it was around the time the Brazillian soccer team won the world cup. Being from Brazil, Flavio was filled with pride that his team had won and put flags on his vehicle as well as writing on the windows with soap. He had spelled the name as Brasil instead of Brazil and when Amy questioned him about it, his response was along the lines of ?That?s how you people in America spell it. Leave it to them to screw everything up like that?.
I grew tired of his constant stream of inexcusable behavior and mentioned it to Amy. She dismissed his behavior saying that he was just a hyper person and gets worked up over everything. So instead of attempting to calm his behavior, she excused and dismissed it. When it became apparent that his behavior was not going to change, I sent an e-mail to Andy detailing some of his more offensive behavior. He came into my small office space and thanked me for letting him know what was going on. He pulled Amy aside and showed her the e-mail and then had a talk with Flavio.
After their talk, Flavio was convinced that Andy had spies in the office who were out to get him. Eventually, he put two and two together and learned that it was me who had let Andy in on his behavior. He then sought out ways to get under my skin and I?m ashamed to say that he succeeded.
On one occasion I had purchased a cooked turkey from the supermarket for lunch. When I was finished, I threw the remains into the bathroom garbage can intending to empty it when I was leaving the office. Evidently the leftover remains emitted an offensive odor because less than an hour later, he burst into the office complaining very loudly (to be sure that I could hear him) about the smell. ?Who in the world would leave a turkey in the garbage like that? What kind of person would do that? That?s fucking disgusting!? and other such things until Amy asked him to be quiet. She came into my office space and asked me if I had left it in there. I told her I did and that I was going to empty it at the end of the day. She told me that I should have taken it out to the dumpster immediately. I responded by pointing out to her that the room in which I worked contained the community microwave and garbage can in which everyone dumped their unfinished lunch food.
Later on, Flavio had found either a note or an e-mail that I had left for Amy regarding his behavior in the office. He pretty much exploded saying he was sick of the shit and being singled out. The note or e-mail had to be fairly old since I had not said or written anything after Flavio and Andy had their talk. Amy came in and told me that Flavio was really upset by what he?d found. I told her I didn?t really care how he felt and said that we were trying to run a business, not a daycare. If there was anything further said during the conversation, I do not recall what it was.
The final straw came when Flavio discovered that the bathroom fan was loud enough to come through the wall in the area where I worked. What I wanted, all I wanted, was a quiet environment to work in. Sometimes I would stay later in the evening just so I could have absolute silence to work in. If I put on some music or the radio, that was one thing, but having to hear the bathroom fan drone on behind my head was like Chinese water torture. I would hear if someone left the restroom and whether or not the fan was still running. If they left it on, I would go to the restroom and turn off the fan. It didn?t take Flavio long to figure out what was going on. He would visit the restroom every ten to fifteen minutes to blow his nose or whatever he needed to do twice every hour. After a few weeks of this, I made two signs. One of them I placed above the light switch and the other I put on the inside of the bathroom door. They both read ?Turn the light off when you are finished in the bathroom?. Flavio continued to use the restroom just to turn on the light.
On Tuesday, January 27 2004, I went to work. Leo (Andy?s tech support person) was in the back taking computers apart and Mike (Andy?s salesman) was on the phone. There were phone cords stretched across the room, Leo was on the phone, Mike was on the phone, and the room where I worked was in total disarray. Leo handed me a printout of laser printers he?d looked up online to replace the one we?d recently lost. I was trying to read the specs of all of them, but was having a difficult time concentrating on what I was reading due to the noise that was going on in the room. Then I heard the fan turn on. I was already in a bad mood that day and I just couldn?t take the noise that was going on. It was impossible for me to concentrate. I got up, left the office, and went home. Leo called me as I was pulling in front of my house.
He asked me when I was coming back and I told him that I wasn?t. I was going to do my work from home. He relayed the message to Amy who grabbed the phone to talk to me. She asked me why I left and I proceeded to explain my problem to her. She assured me that Leo was going to be done in that room by the end of the day and that she would talk to Flavio about his attempts to get under my skin with the bathroom fan. I told her that he?s either got a serious bladder problem or that he?s got to be doing coke if he?s in the bathroom as much as he is. She told me that everything would be taken care of.
On Wednesday, January 28 2004, I went to work and everything seemed to be going smoothly. After an hour or so I heard someone enter the bathroom and then leave while leaving the fan running. I decided that I would make my point in a more clever fashion. I found a screwdriver and proceeded to disconnect a lead from the light switch so the light and the fan would not turn on. Amy went to use the bathroom and found that the light wouldn?t work. She came into the back and began to yell at me saying how silly this whole thing had become. She asked how she was supposed to use the bathroom in the dark and I said that she should have thought about that yesterday when she told me the whole thing would be resolved. She yelled something else to me and I told her not to come into the back where I was working and get in my face. I then said that I was sick of this nonsense.
I grabbed my belongings and my jacket and proceeded to my van. Amy came out after me begging me to stay. I ignored her and went home. I continued to do my work from home.
That Friday, the 30th, I woke up to find that I could no longer access the server to obtain my work. I e-mailed Leo my problem with the remote access software (e-mail 1) and explained that I had to get the work done. He said that Amy and Andy wanted to talk to me on Monday and then proceeded to allow me access to the server.
That Friday night, I met my friend John in Somerville to hang out and have a few drinks. While I was there, I went in and grabbed some supplies (including a color printer, CD labels and CDs) to complete some more work over the weekend.
I continued to work over the weekend and on Sunday went to a friend?s apartment to watch the Superbowl. I slept over at a friend?s house with a few other people. When we were awake and ready to go, I drove John home. I explained to him that I had to go back into work to talk to Amy and Andy to get the situation resolved. I stopped at an Applebee?s before work to pick up some food and then went on to the office. I pulled into the parking lot and did not see Amy?s vehicle there. When I walked into the office, no one would even look at me. I went into the back to continue doing my work. After a while, Andy came into the back room and asked me what my problem was. I explained how I felt that Flavio was going out of his way to get under my skin because he found out that I?d sent Andy the e-mail. Andy blew off my issue and proceeded to tell me that it was his name, not mine or Amy?s, that was on the office lease and that since I?d disconnected the light switch, he could press charges on me. He also said that my behavior had him worried because if I was capable of disconnecting the light switch, there was no telling what I would do the next time something bothered me. He asked me what was next, if someone said something I didn?t like, would I burn down the office? I told him that I thought he was blowing the situation out of proportion to which he replied that he didn?t think he was. I explained I was only trying to find a clever way to make a point to which he again brought up me burning down the office to make a clever point. He told me that if it were up to him, I wouldn?t even be working there any more. I misunderstood what he had meant and told him that I was working on getting the company out of there. He asked what I meant and I told him that I?d been having talks with Amy to try to convince her to find our company its own office space but that she was too uncomfortable with the idea of leaving Andy. He then told me that what I?d explained was not what he meant and that he?d meant that I wouldn?t have a job anymore and he was no longer comfortable with having me in his office. I told him it wouldn?t be a problem.
At the time, I was busy burning and assembling CDs to send to a client. When I had enough of the work done, I brought the remainder home with me and finished the project at home. I had been at the office for approximately 4 ? hours during which I did not see Amy once.
On Wednesday, February 4, 2004, I found that I could once again no longer access the server to do my work. I was furious at this point that I could not do my work for the client so I sent an e-mail to Amy explaining my recourse should I not be allowed access to the server. About four hours later I got an e-mail from a lawyer telling me that my employee status had been terminated. I called Amy and tried to talk to her, but she wasn?t saying much. She told me that I?d created an uncomfortable work environment for everyone and that there wasn?t anything she could do about it. She also said that since I had threatened to take Andy?s work that he had to get a lawyer involved.
I tried to call her back later to let her know that I?d sent out two projects that should be invoiced, but Robin told me that she would no longer be taking my calls and that all communications should be made through their lawyer.
I have tried to get the lawyer to negotiate terms of sale of my shares, but he has responded by saying that he was not authorized to do anything but get his clients property back. I have also had to contact the NJ Dept. of Labor to compel them to comply with NJ law regarding my final paycheck which they had withheld from me for approximately two months.
And not once did I ever complain to her about screwing one of our employees (Tim Vreeland). What a way to run a company.
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